Five external members of the committee at its meeting held on Oct. 19 suggested the RBI leave its key rate unchanged, while one member favoured a quarter-point increase, showed the minutes released on the RBI website.

Getty Images Mario Draghi Sure, the quarter-point rate cut to 1.25% surprised economists, who had expected the new president to prepare the ground for a December rate cut, as his predecessor, Jean-Claude Trichet, might have done.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group said the market had been pricing in nearly a quarter-point rate increase on Dec. 8 prior to the earthquakes, but was now only pricing in a 0.14 percentage point increase.